When Yun Li returned to the café, the group was locked in a stalemate.
A minute earlier, Qu Mingxin had already been eager to see Yun Li again. She rarely experienced being openly criticized like this and couldn’t accept that she wasn’t well-liked here.
Fu Shize said, "They’re about to leave."
Yun Li found it sudden but could guess that something had happened while she was away. "Then I’ll see them off."
At the entrance, Qu Mingxin unwillingly grabbed Yun Li’s arm. "Yun Li, I didn’t want to bring this up, but your friends don’t seem very welcoming toward us."
Yun Li grew wary. "What do you mean?"
"I just chatted with them for a bit, and your colleague seemed pretty short-tempered."
Fu Shize was short-tempered?
This was the first time Yun Li had ever heard that assessment.
"What did you talk about?"
"Nothing much, just mentioned how you used to get punished by standing in class. I was only—"
The words "punished by standing" triggered Yun Li’s most sensitive memories from high school. She cut Qu Mingxin off. "Did you tell them I can’t hear in my left ear?"
Qu Mingxin opened her mouth, but seeing Yun Li’s expression darken immediately, she lost some of her confidence. "I didn’t expect them not to know. Besides, we’ve been classmates for so many years—I just wanted them to treat you better."
Yun Li found it utterly absurd.
As a child, she hadn’t been afraid to tell others about this. She hadn’t even known she had this issue—from her perspective, she thought everyone was the same as her.
That everyone’s left ear couldn’t hear.
That it was just decoration.
It wasn’t until later, when childish voices spat out words like "deaf," "disabled," and "deformed," that she realized she truly was different from others.
She made a conscious effort never to bring it up again, but the news still spread during high school.
At first—or rather, even now—she had felt somewhat inferior because of it.
She had been emotional too, unable to stop herself from asking, Why me?
But what confused her more was why something that wasn’t her fault in the first place was repeatedly used to attack her.
The buried grievances from her memories tangled with the anger of the present. She had thought that after all these years, she wouldn’t be like before. Why did it still have to affect her life now?
"I don’t think bringing up those humiliating things from my past in front of my friends counts as treating me well," Yun Li said, looking at her. "Back then, I was too timid to argue with you. I thought if I just endured it, I could get through it."
"But now I see that’s not the case." Yun Li pushed her hand away and said coldly, "Please don’t contact me again."
With that, she closed the door without another glance at Qu Mingxin’s expression.
Behind the door, Yun Li took a while to calm down. Finally, she had stood up for herself. Surprisingly, taking this step hadn’t been as difficult as she imagined.
...
Inside the café, Fu Zhengchu closed his book. "Uncle, were you angry just now?"
Fu Shize replied, "No."
Earlier, when Fu Zhengchu heard Qu Mingxin talk about Yun Li’s past, he had only felt pity for her. But after Fu Shize’s words, he realized—
It really wasn’t right.
If it were him, he wouldn’t have told others those things either."I actually never noticed that Sister Yun Li couldn't hear from one ear..." Fu Zhengchu racked his brains trying to recall his daily interactions with Yun Li but ended up remembering something else: "Uncle, did you know from the beginning? Every time we went out before, you were always on Sister Yun Li's right side."
Fu Shize: "..."
Fu Zhengchu: "Even now, you're still on her right."
He wanted to probe further into Fu Shize's motives when he saw Yun Li approaching. Unable to hide his thoughts, Fu Zhengchu hastily grabbed a book from the side and pretended to flip through it.
Within seconds, she couldn't help but point out: "Fu Zhengchu, you're holding the book upside down."
"Ah, huh?" Fu Zhengchu quickly straightened up. "I must've fallen asleep!"
Yun Li: "..."
Yun Li knew the reason for Fu Zhengchu's odd behavior and felt she should say something, but after much deliberation, she couldn't find the right words. She quietly went back to reading.
After ordering some light snacks at the café, the group moved to a seating area with sofas. Fu Shize, looking drowsy, borrowed a baseball cap from Fu Zhengchu, put it on, and curled up in the sofa to sleep.
Seeing this, the other two quietly continued reading.
Exams were approaching, but Yun Li was distracted, thinking about what Qu Mingxin had said earlier—Fu Shize had been furious.
She knew there was some exaggeration, but she could imagine that Fu Shize had stood up for her.
Once this thought surfaced, Yun Li's mind was filled with images of him getting angry on her behalf. But no matter how she imagined it, none of the scenarios seemed to fit his personality.
If only she had been there earlier.
She tried to focus by writing formulas on scratch paper, but after a while, she realized she had drawn moons all over the page.
Glancing to the side, she saw Fu Shize curled up in the corner of the sofa, his lips pressed tightly together, his body trembling slightly, his back tense—as if he were having a nightmare.
His brows were tightly furrowed, his breathing irregular, as if he were struggling.
She probably shouldn't just let him suffer through the nightmare.
Yun Li reached out to shake his shoulder, but Fu Shize suddenly grabbed her wrist and pinned her hand against his thigh.
"..."
She tried to pull her hand back, but his grip didn't budge. His breathing gradually steadied, his brows relaxed, but his hold on her wrist remained firm.
For some reason, it reminded her of a baby sucking on a pacifier.
With this position, she couldn't read anymore, so she took out her phone and opened her chat with Fu Shize. She typed out a few sentences, then deleted them one by one.
[Are you pretending to sleep?]
[This is kind of... intimate.]
[You grabbed my hand.]
[You initiated it.]
[Are you going to take responsibility?]
...
[It's been five minutes.]
Fu Shize let go of her just as he was about to wake up. When Yun Li pulled her hand back, she saw faint bruises where he had gripped her.
Fu Zhengchu asked in a strange tone, "Uncle, did you sleep well?"
Not understanding his tone, Fu Shize merely lifted his drowsy eyes and ignored him.
The three of them finished studying before dinner. When Yun Li got home, she collapsed onto the sofa, staring at the light through her fingers. Lowering her gaze, she saw faint marks still on her wrist.
Because he had held her hand, she felt—unilaterally—that their relationship had taken a sudden leap forward.
Damn it, he's always taking liberties with her.
And never taking responsibility.
Frustrated, Yun Li opened WeChat and sent a message to Deng Chuqi.Yun Li: [Another day of unrequited longing.]
Deng Chuqi replied instantly: [??? Did you confess?]
Suppressing the urge to mention being taken advantage of, Yun Li replied: [No. Wouldn’t that scare them off?]
Deng Chuqi: [Then how did you "long"?]
Yun Li: [I longed silently in my heart.]
Yun Li held her phone for a while, but Deng Chuqi didn’t reply. Switching back to E-Station, the candid post from earlier had already garnered 200,000 likes. After briefly responding, she switched to her chat window with Fu Shize.
Their conversation still lingered from Halloween night.
She had asked: [I’m heading to the tech district now!]
He had replied: [Mhm.]
Yun Li: [About promoting EAW’s update—are you free Monday evening?]
Both her exams were on Monday during the day, and with the winter semester schedule adjustments, her internship hours had been rearranged accordingly.
Fu Shize replied, still with just a simple “Mhm.”
Scrolling back, it was mostly her sending several messages to his one, their entire chat history not even reaching twenty messages. After flipping through them for a while, she changed his nickname to ‘Wifey,’ which felt much more satisfying.
She scrolled back to their earliest messages and deleted two in the middle.
Yun Li: [Be my wifey /]
Wifey: [Mhm]
……
The night before the exam, Yun Li pulled an all-nighter, not only grinding through several practice tests but also making a matcha towel roll, carefully packing it into a box and tying it with a blue ribbon.
After the exam, she went back to catch up on sleep. But just before heading out for their meetup, a light drizzle started. Yun Li changed into a waterproof trench coat, tucked her camera into a waterproof bag, and then walked to EAW under her umbrella.
The staff had already left. Yun Li waited at the entrance for a while, and within minutes, the drizzle turned into a downpour.
Glancing at the time, she saw there were still ten minutes until their scheduled meeting. Lingering by the window, she absentmindedly traced circles on the ground with her shoe before reopening her umbrella and heading toward the fire escape entrance of the building.
Large raindrops pelted the umbrella as Yun Li spotted Fu Shize standing by the fire escape through the rain. Just as she’d expected, he hadn’t brought an umbrella.
As soon as she stepped under the awning, she closed her umbrella and patted the rainwater off her clothes. A large portion of her was already soaked, and the ends of her hair were dripping.
His gaze darkened as he glanced at what she was holding. “Here to pick me up?”
Too embarrassed to admit it outright, Yun Li mumbled, “I waited over there for a while, but you didn’t come.”
“Give me the umbrella.” Without further questions, Fu Shize took it and opened it.
The single umbrella was cramped, barely fitting two people. Yun Li slung her camera bag across her chest.
The sound of rain amplified in her right ear, the downpour obscuring her vision. Amid all the sensations, the only thing she could truly feel was the presence of the other person.
Raindrops slid down the umbrella ribs, splashing onto Fu Shize’s other side. Feeling guilty, Yun Li said, “My umbrella’s too small. Maybe you should just use it alone.”
Fu Shize dismissed the impractical suggestion but still asked softly, “Then what about you?”
The petite girl, practically tucked into his embrace, cheerfully pulled up her hood. “This coat is waterproof.”
Fu Shize: “……”
Luckily, the walk wasn’t long. Once they reached the experience center, Fu Shize swiped his card to unlock the door, turned on the power, and fetched a towel from the storage room for Yun Li.Embarrassed to wipe her hair in front of him, Yun Li turned around and gently dabbed the wet strands with a towel.
After setting up the camera and reflector, Yun Li proceeded to film each segment according to the prearranged schedule.
The final segment involved playing a horror game with VR glasses. For the sake of the show's effect, Yun Li decided to take on the challenge herself. Once Fu Shize helped her put on the glasses, he guided her to launch the game Waking Up to Ghosts .
The game began in a bathroom bathed in eerie red light. Yun Li tensed up, moving cautiously through the space. There were several rooms to explore, and as she navigated through them, a bloodcurdling ghostly scream suddenly echoed in her ears.
Yun Li couldn’t hear from her left ear, so unlike most people, she couldn’t pinpoint the source of the sound.
To her, all sounds came from the right.
Instinctively, she thought the ghost was on her right and took a frightened step back to the left—only to bump straight into someone’s arms. When she looked up, she was met with a deathly pale face.
Before Yun Li could scream, Fu Shize swiftly removed her VR glasses.
Still shaken, her vision returned to the real world, but the soft sensation behind her reminded her of the terrifying scene. Heart pounding, she turned her head—only to realize…
She was in Fu Shize’s embrace.
He held the VR glasses in one hand while the other lightly steadied her shoulder to prevent her from falling.
"......"
"I didn’t mean to."
Suddenly snapping back to reality, she stiffly took two steps forward, breaking free from his hold.
Her face burned with embarrassment—she had taken advantage of Fu Shize again. Pressing the back of her hand to her cheeks, she waited for the heat to subside before turning around.
Fu Shize lowered his gaze, turning off the VR glasses and adjusting the strap to its normal size, inspecting it carefully.
He repeated this motion several times.
Only then did he look up at Yun Li.
"Do you like me?"
His gaze was clear.
Yun Li froze.
Her first instinct was to deny it, but the words stuck in her throat, refusing to come out.
There had been many nights when, unable to sleep, she would open her eyes and vaguely see another person’s silhouette in her mind.
She had never shied away from this feeling—this bittersweet, tingling sensation that had grown from admiration to deep affection.
She wanted to be part of his past.
She wanted to be part of his present.
She wanted to be part of his future.
Countless emotions had taken root in her heart, sprouting long ago. Though her timid self had tried to suppress and forget them, they had only flourished more fiercely in the world around her.
So this was what it meant—for someone’s eyes to truly, completely hold only one person’s reflection.
Clenching her fists, Yun Li met his gaze. "What if I said I want to pursue you?"
Fu Shize was silent for a long time.
Or maybe just a few seconds.
To Yun Li, every second felt like an eternity. Her palms grew clammy with sweat, trembling uncontrollably.
He lowered his eyes.
In the same tone as that night when he had rejected her.
"I’m sorry."
With each clear word he spoke, Yun Li’s tense emotions gradually dissipated.
She heard the rain stop.
And she heard every word he said.
—"Maybe my actions gave you the wrong impression."
—"I don’t plan on being in a relationship."
OpenNovel